"Kanye('d)" redux

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Mon Mar 8 16:13:14 UTC 2010


"Kanye" as a verb, meaning "to interrupt someone else's speech (in the
manner of Kanye West at the VMAs)" was nominated in the "Most
Creative" category for WOTY '09 but didn't get much love from the
voters. Looks like it's proving useful for Oscar watchers to describe
the struggle for the microphone between Elinor Burkett and Roger Ross
Williams when "Music by Prudence" won for Best Documentary Short.

* "to be/get Kanye'd":

---
http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-oscars-best-documentary-short-speech-gets-kanyed-video/
The Oscars’ Best Documentary Short Speech Gets Kanye’d (Video)
This may turn out the be the most interesting part of tonight’s
snoozefestie Oscars. The Best Documentary Short speech was interrupted
— Kanye’d as the lingo now goes — by red-headed Elinor Burkett.
---

* "to Kanye":

---
http://www.slate.com/id/2246812/entry/2247131/
Go ahead, Troy, be my Elinor Burkett (the redhaired lady who Kanye'd
the best documentary short director and finished his speech for him,
in what had to be the evening's most bizarre moment).
---

* "pull a Kanye":

---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/oscars/7396843/Oscars-2010-Elinor-Burketts-Kanye-West-moment-as-she-storms-stage-to-ruin-speech.html
Williams said he was stunned when Burkett "pulled a Kanye".
---
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/2010/03/07/music_by_prudence_burkett
[Question for Burkett:] People are already saying you "pulled a
Kanye." What happened?
---

(The Salon article interviews both participants and explains the
source of the conflict.)


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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